FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Candi Clevenger, Communications Manager, OhioLINK, 614-728-3600 ext. 329, candi@ohiolink.edu
Columbus, Ohio (October 25, 2006) – This month The Ohio State University Libraries added the 10 millionth unique title to the OhioLINK Library Catalog, a statewide catalog that includes the collections of 86 libraries. Ohio students, faculty and staff from participating libraries now have access to a total of 45.5 million copies of books and other library materials. To visualize how many items that is, imagine a bookshelf that stretches from Columbus to Portland, Maine. That would be 878 miles of shelf space, just twenty miles short of the amount needed to accommodate all 45.5 million items.*
“The OhioLINK Library Catalog expands research capabilities because users are no longer restricted to what is available in their limited local library collections.” OhioLINK Executive Director Tom Sanville, said. “The online borrowing and delivery program ensures that every Ohio student, regardless of whether he or she attends the largest university in the state or the smallest community college, has equal access to the same vital books and research resources.”
Students and faculty at The Ohio State University, which has the largest academic library collection in Ohio, have access to more than three times the number of unique titles through OhioLINK than the 3.2 million titles available locally from the OSU Libraries. OhioLINK expands access even more dramatically for those at smaller colleges. Library users at Capital University have access to only 214,000 unique titles on campus, while Columbus State State Community College’s library has less than 45,000 unique titles.
The 10,000,000th title is Mexican Modern: Masters of the 20th Century, essays by David Craven and Luis-Martin Lozano. Of these 10 million unique titles, 58.75% are owned by only one of the 83 Ohio academic libraries, the State Library of Ohio and two public libraries, Cuyahoga County Public Library and Westerville Public Library, participating in the OhioLINK Library Catalog and borrowing program.
In addition to the materials borrowed from their own libraries, Ohio students and faculty borrowed 769,197 items from other OhioLINK libraries from October 2005 through September 2006. The materials are delivered to any participating library statewide in just two to three days. More than 6.3 million books and other library items have been requested since Ohio academic libraries began offering online borrowing and delivery through OhioLINK in 1994.
OhioLINK has grown from its beginnings in the early 1990s as a shared statewide catalog and online borrowing system to a robust virtual library of 7.5 million scholarly journal articles, 19,000 electronic books, 2,000 digital videos and more. These items are accessible online 24 hours a day, seven days a week at www.ohiolink.edu and member libraries’ Web sites. Use of these resources remains high. In the past 12 months, OhioLINK users have downloaded 4.9 million scholarly articles, used more than 188,000 e-books, and downloaded or streamed educational digital videos 68,415 times.
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* Using an average book width of 1.25 inches, 45.5 million books lined up side-by-side on a bookshelf would cover a distance of 898 miles. The distance from Columbus, Ohio to Portland, Maine is 878 miles according to MapQuest.com
The Ohio Library and Information Network is a consortium of academic libraries that serves more than 600,000 students, faculty, and staff at 84 institutions. OhioLINK's membership includes 16 public universities, 23 community/technical colleges, 44 private colleges and the State Library of Ohio. OhioLINK provides easy access to information and rapid delivery of library materials throughout the state. For more information, visit www.ohiolink.edu/about/news.